purple

[pur-puh l] /ˈpɜr pəl/

noun

any color having components of both red and blue, such as lavender, especially one deep in tone.

cloth or clothing of this hue, especially as formerly worn distinctively by persons of imperial, royal, or other high rank.

the rank or office of a cardinal.

the office of a bishop.

imperial, regal, or princely rank or position.

deep red; crimson.

any of several nymphalid butterflies, as Basilarchia astyanax (red-spotted purple) having blackish wings spotted with red, or Basilarchia arthemis (banded purple or white admiral) having brown wings banded with white.

adjective, purpler, purplest.

of the color purple.

imperial, regal, or princely.

10.

brilliant or showy.

11.

full of exaggerated literary devices and effects; marked by excessively ornate rhetoric:

a purple passage in a novel.

12.

profane or shocking, as language.

verb (used with object), verb (used without object), purpled, purpling.

13.

to make or become purple.

Idioms

14.

born in / to the purple, of royal or exalted birth:

Those born to the purple are destined to live in the public eye.

Origin

before 1000; Middle English purpel (noun and adj.), Old English purple (adj.), variant of purpure < Latin purpura kind of shellfish yielding purple dye, the dye, cloth so dyed < Greek porphýra; cf. purpure, porphyry

Related forms

purpleness, noun

Examples from the web for purple

The moves to purple tennis courts or blue ones are not only about marketing tour events.
Brats chopped and mixed with pickled purple cabbage and onion.
Others start out yellow, purple, or white before they turn colors.
Widespread form shows bronze gloss to body, blue head, and purple or blue iridescence on wings and tail.
purple fibers are outside, and blue-green fibers are inside the tumor.
Try a matte purple or blue for daytime and sparkly golds or reds for night.
The yellow and purple hues that should emerge in the spring will match their school colours.
Salt deposits along the water's edge appear purple in this twilight view.
The purple bubble raft snail, which drifts on a dinghy of self-created bubbles.
We loved them in the garden, and now purple carrots are being put to use as natural dye.

British Dictionary definitions for purple

purple

/ˈpɜːpəl/

noun

any of various colours with a hue lying between red and blue and often highly saturated; a nonspectral colour

a dye or pigment producing such a colour

cloth of this colour, often used to symbolize royalty or nobility

the purple, high rank; nobility

the official robe of a cardinal
the rank, office, or authority of a cardinal as signified by this

the purple, bishops collectively

adjective

of the colour purple

(of writing) excessively elaborate or full of imagery: purple prose

noble or royal

Derived Forms

purpleness, noun
purplish, adjective
purply, adjective

Word Origin

Old English, from Latin purpura purple dye, from Greek porphura the purple fish (Murex)

Word Origin and History for purple

n., adj.

Old English purpul, dissimilation (first recorded in Northumbrian, in Lindisfarne gospel) of purpure "purple dye, a purple garment," purpuren (adj.) "purple," a borrowing by 9c. from Latin purpura "purple color, purple-dyed cloak, purple dye," also "shellfish from which purple was made," and "splendid attire generally," from Greek porphyra "purple dye, purple" (cf. porphyry), of uncertain origin, perhaps Semitic, originally the name for the shellfish (murex) from which it was obtained. Purpur continued as a parallel form until 15c., and through 19c. in heraldry. As a color name, attested from early 15c. Tyrian purple, produced around Tyre, was prized as dye for royal garments.

Also the color of mourning or penitence (especially in royalty or clergy). Rhetorical for "splendid, gaudy" (of prose) from 1590s. Purple Heart, U.S. decoration for service members wounded in combat, instituted 1932; originally a cloth decoration begun by George Washington in 1782. Hendrix' Purple Haze (1967) is slang for "LSD."

c.1400, from purple (n.). Related: Purpled; purpling.